The increase of media-based applications on the Internet has incurred great cost on the routing infrastructure that is required to serve the content. Because of the increase of media-based applications the routers can be a major stumbling block for such Internet-powered media applications. As more and more users use the Internet the stress on the backbone, including the routers, increases. To overcome this and related problems research is being done to develop routing technologies that allow for scalability to cope with the current and future bandwidth hungry applications of the Internet. This also includes having the capabilities of high-speed IP packet forwarding to overcome the increasing network delays.
Furthermore, the increased traffic transfer through ISPs (Internet Service Providers) caused by new access methods, such as, for example, ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) is a burden on routers, especially backbone routers.
Thus, there exists a need to speed up the routers.
Furthermore, there is also a need for a new protocol which will enable routing once and cross-connect to any packet switching system/device, such as, router.
Similarly, there is also a need for a new protocol which will enable routing once and cross-connect to many packet switching systems/devices, such as, routers.
Yet there is another need to have a simple protocol that allows for easy and transparent implementation on high speed networks, such as the current networks.
This invention overcomes the problems of the prior art. The invention provides a protocol to speed up the routers or any packet switching system/device by providing a new protocol which enables to route once and cross-connect many (ROACM).